New Media production week 9

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1 New Media production week 9 How to Make an Digital Animation poonpong@gmail.com

2 Hardware PC or Mac with high resolution graphics and lots of RAM Peripherals such as graphics tablet Digital Camera (2D, 3D) Color Printer 3D Printers Digital displays

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4 Software Frame grab software for digitizing live image frame by frame for digital stop-frame animation, Digital 2D animation programs for cel animated cartoon style animation. Digital 3D animation packages for modeling, animating and rendering for 3D CGI (Computer generated image) Compositing software that merges together and manipulated layersof the animation into a final complex image, often used for visual effects.

5 Software 2D 3D Flash ToonBoom Maya Lightwave

6 UMiyc Flash

7 KBns

8 B9ucCIkX0 3D Software: Maya

9 Animation Production The production pipeline of a typical animated short or a movie can be divided into three stages : pre-production, production and postproduction. Pratik Gulati

10 Pre-Production The first process in the animation pipeline, and also one of the most important, is preproduction. It begins with the main concepts which are initially turned into a full story, and then, once the story has been finalized, other things such as the script, shot sequence and camera angles are worked on. Some major components of pre production are Ideas and Concept, Story Research, Visual Research, Script Writing, Story Boarding, Film Language, Concept Design, Environment Design, Character Design, Organization and etc.

11 Ideas and Concepts Brain Storming Every ides will be written down, without judgment from other person. Any ideas is acceptable, however apparently crazy or bizzarre. Quantity not quality, is important Mind Mapping Technique of association and imagination to map out stream of tought.

12 Ideas Tips Keep a small journal on you at all time. Watch as much animations as possible to keep your ideas contemporary and fresh. Talk to other people. Who will be the eventual audience for your ideas.what sort of thing do they like. Give yourself a timeframe to work with. If you feel frustrated, leave an idea for a day or two and return when your brain is rested.

13 Story research What ever style or technique of animation you decide to use, every animated film has one thing in common a good story.

14 Story Tips A story must have a beginning, a middle and an end. But not necessary in that order. Use observation- to make your characters believable, research how particular people act and react. Use conflict in your story telling. This is a useful device for drama and comedy as well as good character development.

15 Story Tips Let your imagination flow- in animation any thing can happen, and with the whole range of potential techniques at your disposal, the only limit is your imagination. Produce a very detailed character profile of every character in your story. Do a situation test. Imagine your characters in any situation. How would they react.

16 Visual Research Once you have an idea, you need to flesh the concepts out into the basis of an animation. Field trip Character research Audience research Production research Visual reference mood of the film.

17 ScriptWriting Pulling all the ideas and concepts into a focused blueprint for the animation is all part of scriptwriting.

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19 Story Boarding The Storyboard helps to finalize the development of the storyline, and is an essential stage of the animation process. It is made up of drawings in the form of a comic strip, and is used to both help visualise the animation and to communicate ideas clearly. It details the scene and changes in the animation, often accompanied by text notes describing things occurring within the scene itself, such as camera movements. Not only can storyboards be especially useful when working in group environments (something quite common in the animation industry,) but they also provide a visual reminder of the original plan; something that can be referred back to throughout the production.

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21 Film Language When you create a storyboard, you are venturing into the world of cinematography, where choice about shot composition, design, lighting and camera angle have to be decided.

22 Concept Design Digital animation can be designed to work in any visual style, and with a multitude of technique at your disposal from realistic to abstract, 2 D to 3D you really create a unique world.

23 Environment design The art of designing an environment for animation is really about designing the whole film. An environment should be striking and yet uncluttered to allow characters to work within it.

24 Environment Tips Always keep the composition as interesting as possible., manipulating the audience s ees toward specific areas of attention. Don t use heavy, bold or primary colors. That will just make your animation look too busy. Allow space for the action to take place. A good environment desire should be slightly bare. Keep it simple.

25 Character Design Whether you want to make a stylized or naturalistic animation, the design of the characters must be established early on in the process. They are the main vehicle through which the story will be told, and they must be designed with this in mind.

26 Simple Design

27 Personality Design

28 Shape Design

29 Action Poses

30 Model Sheets Model sheets are precisely drawn groups of pictures that show all of the possible expressions that a character can make, and all of the many different poses that they could adopt. These sheets are created in order to both accurately maintain character detail and to keep the designs of the characters uniform whilst different animators are working on them across several shots. During this stage the character designs are finalized so that when production starts their blueprints can be sent to the modeling department who are responsible for creating the final character models.

31 Realism

32 3D Character Design

33 Character Design Tips Attend regular life drawing classes to develop your understanding of anatomy and drawing skills. Keep your character designs simple. Complex character designs are often difficult and time consuming to model and animate. Make sure the eyes of your character are as expressive and as appealing as possible. This is what the audience will look at first.

34 Character Design Tips Avoid absolute realism in your design. The paradox of uncanny valley * is a problem faced by many three-dimensional characters and means that the more real your character looks, the more zombielike and unappealing it will actually be. *The uncanny valley is a theory put forward by Japanese roboticist Dr.Masahiro Mori, who observed that there is a point at which a person observing a humanoid robot sees something that is almost human, but not quite human enough and it actually appears eerie and weird.

35 Organization Even the shortest of animation projects involves a small army of artists, technicians, and performers. The person who plans, motivates, and make it all happen is the producer.

36 Organization tips If you are producing your own animation, always plan a schedule and stick to it. Always allow some contingency time in your project. In animation, if anything can go wrong, it often does. Stick to a methodical process.

37 Organization tips Stick to a methodical process. Don t start the animation until you are extremely well planned. It will be very difficult to change later. Always back up your work onto something like a DVD disk. Hard drives can fail.

38 Production Now that the storyboard has been approved the project enters the production phase. It s here that the actual work can start, based on the guidelines established during preproduction. Some major parts are layout, modeling, texturing, lighting, rigging and animation.

39 Production Detail Animation techniques Voice recording Digital 2D artwork Digital character library Backgrounds Staging Motion Theory Stretch and squash

40 Production Detail (cont.) Timing and weight Overlapping action Anticipation Performance Body language Expressions and lip-synch Motion Walk

41 Production Detail (cont.) Technique and practice Animation methods Digital 3D artwork Scene planning Types of shot Continuity Rendering and output Lighting Shot design

42 Rigging Rigging is the process of adding bones to a character or defining the movement of a mechanical object, and it s central to the animation process. A character TD will make test animations showing how a creature or character appears when deformed into different poses, and based on the results corrective adjustments are often made.

43 The rigging department is also involved in developing cloth simulation so as well as making a character able to clench their fist or rotate their arm, the rigging and cloth department is responsible for making their costume move in a believable manner.

44 Post-Production Post-production is the third and final step in film creation, and it refers to the tasks that must be completed or executed after the filming or shooting ends. These include the editing of raw footage to cut scenes together, inserting transitional effects, working with voice and sound actors and dubbing to name just a few of the many post-production tasks. Overall, however, the three main phases of postproduction are compositing, sound editing and video editing.

45 Post production Compositing for animation CGI Visual effects Sound production Sound post production Editing animation : theory Editing animation : practice

46 Compositing The compositing department brings together all of the 3D elements produced by the previous departments in the pipeline, to create the final rendered image ready for film! Compositors take rendered images from lighters and sometimes also start with compositing scripts that TDs develope in order to initially comp together their dailies (working versions of the shot.)

47 General compositing tasks include rendering the different passes delivered by a lighting department to form the final shot, paint fixes and rotoscoping (although compositors sometimes rely on mattes created by a dedicated rotoscoping department), as well as the compositing of fx elements and general color grading.

48 Sound Editing This department is responsible for selecting and assembling the sound recordings in preparation for the final sound mix, ensuring lip sync and adding all of the sound effects required for the final film.

49 Video Editing Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging shots to create a seamless final product, and it is at this stage that any unwanted footage and scenes are removed. Editing is a crucial step in making sure the video flows in a way which achieves the initial goal. Other tasks include titling and adding any effects to the final video and text.

50 Conclusion The production pipeline detailed above is broadly common in most studios, however each studio is likely to have a custom pipeline determined by the type of project they are currently undertaking. A 2D production pipeline starts with workbook and goes all the way through final checking, composting and film output, whilst the 3D CGI production process emphasizes the design, modeling and rigging and animation stages. Moreover, animation production is a very coordinated process where different teams of artists work together while utilizing optimum resources and achieving the initial goal in the time available.

51 Q & A